I finally managed to get out to Lake Fork this week and had a grand time as always. We never caught any big fish, but we did catch a good number of bass and had beautiful weather to do it in. Temperatures were in the low 80s all week and winds were mostly light. Rhandy was booked all week so Dale volunteered to fish me 14 hours a day on Monday through Wednesday, plus a half day on Sunday.
I got out to the lake about 3:30 on Sunday afternoon and found Monty had forgotten to leave me a note telling me which room I was in. I was able to get into room 2, it was clean, and moved my stuff in there. When I came out Dale was sitting in the parking lot. He said there were 3 tournaments happening down at the Minnow Bucket and it was a zoo with no parking. He decided we would use the ramp at Hook Line and Sinker. I asked him to call Monty to tell him which room I was in and he said Monty had said I would be in room 2. I guessed right!
We put in at the ramp and headed out for 4 hours on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. The 3 tournys had shied the fish so we only caught 4. We headed in about 8 pm around sunset. It was a slow start, but it sure felt good to have a rod in my hand again. We fished mostly split shot rigs with senkos and baby brush hogs working pockets and banks.
Monday we headed out about 20 minutes before sunrise and started out on a main lake point. We had about 20 by 8 am fishing Carolina rigs with flukes and baby brush hogs. I tell you the fish know when it is not the weekend anymore. After the morning bite ended, we moved around fishing banks and pockets throwing a combo of split shot rigs and Carolina rigs. We did find one group of trees that produced 6 fish, but mostly it was ones and twos around different spots. We ended up with a total of 39 for the day, which is a pretty good bunch of bass. Nothing over about 3 pounds.
Tuesday we headed out around the same time and again had good results on a main lake point using the same techniques. I think we had 18 by about 8 am. After that we spent a lot of the day back in Little Caney throwing split shots and wacky worms. We did try one deep water spot with Carolina rigs but the fish either were not there or not interested. We ground out another 15 fish over the rest of the day, with the best bite coming exactly at 8 pm on my last cast. We were back in a pocket pitching wacky worms and I had pitched out to one side of a tree with no bite. I decided to try the other side of the tree and was rewarded with a nice fight with a 6 pound bass. The fish had a huge gut and looked like she hadn't spawned yet.
Wednesday one of my wife's work buddies, Keith, came out and joined us for the day. He's a much more experienced fisherman than I am and he and Dale got along great. We headed out about the same time but found another boat sitting on our usual point. We headed over to another point and caught a few, but not as many as we had been finding on the other point. After awhile, Dale realized that was a buddy of his sitting on "our" point. When he checked his phone he found 5 messages from his buddy inviting us to come over and join them. We did, but after the main bite had slowed down. We did see an 8.1 caught in the other boat, but we found only solid little 2 and 3 pound fish and dinks. We moved down the bank for awhile and added a few more with Carolina rigs before switching to split shots and heading back to pockets and banks. Around 2:30 a small thunderstorm blew up west of us and we ran off the lake and sat it out in the parking lot of the Minnow Bucket. I am the Lake Fork rain God! We headed back out after about an hour but found the wind had picked up a bit. We tied up and threw at a windy pond dam and bank for awhile and caught a few. Then we motored inside the pond dam and worked the banks til the wind started to lay down a bit. We ended up the evening hitting some pockets and finished with 33 bass for the day. Keith hooked about a 7 pound drum in the belly, but we won't count that one. It was a good fight, though! I think Keith had a pretty good time for his first trip to Lake Fork.
As usual we saw lots of wildlife along the banks.
109 bass over 3 and a half days makes for a pretty good trip. Thanks to Dale for fishing me sunrise to sunset, 14 hours a day, for 3 days straight. That's an extra effort and I sure do appreciate it.
Yes, I have started using a sun mask and I know it looks goofy as hell. However it is a lot nicer than slathering my face in greasy sun cream. Plus, if I'm only catching small bass I will be able to maintain my secret identity!
While sitting out the storm on Wednesday we heard that Tony, who runs the Minnow Bucket in the mornings, had suffered a heart attack and was in the hospital. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.